Holidaze

After my thorough gift-bash that was yesterday's post, I feel like I need to come clean about something.

My kids are getting a Wii for Christmas.

See, I got this idea to do almost-nothing for the holidays not only because of my high-mindedness, but also for practical, pragmatic reasons. The kids, at 8 and 10, are getting a little old for toys. I haven't seen Alex play with a toy in ages. Susie still enjoys her dolls and animals, but even she will tell you she has plenty of them. And going to a school that requires uniforms means they don't really need clothes (I stocked up on uniforms earlier this fall...thank you, Ebay).

But they've been coveting the Wii for at least a year.

It all came together perfectly, to be honest. We're taking a trip to Florida in January, so we knew we weren't going to do a lot for Christmas. Then I saw the announcement on the bulletin board at church that MIFA needed drivers for Meals on Wheels for Christmas Day. And everything started jumbling around in my head.

(Santa spoiler ahead...if you have a believing kid reading over your shoulder, it's time to turn off the monitor. NOW.)

My kids don't believe in Santa. I don't think they ever really did. So I knew I wouldn't be ruining anything for them when I said, "What would you guys think if we didn't do any presents for Christmas and instead I just bought you a Wii?"

The jumping and screaming and giggling and chanting gave me a hint that they wouldn't be devastated.

So that's how I convinced them to be okay with no presents. By promising them the best present they could imagine. Which, yeah, seems a little bit like cheating.

But maybe it's a start. Maybe they can learn to associate Christmas with service to others (because OF COURSE they'll be riding along as we deliver the meals on wheels) instead of a great orgy of gifts. Maybe they can see the wide disparities in our city between the haves and the have-nots, and be moved to do something differently to make a little more justice.

When my kids were born, I did astrological charts for each of them. Not because I'm a big believer in astrology, but because I thought it would be something interesting for their baby books. And something jumped out at me, something that was the same on each of those charts, 22 months apart. These kids, and the millions of children born in their generation, are thought to be the children who will bring in the true "Age of Aquarius" - a time of enlightenment, justice, peace, and fixing what's broken. A generation of children who will solve problems that it took generations to create - they'll clean up the air, the earth, the water. They'll create peace. To a starry-eyed new mother, those words were just what I wanted to read: my kids are going to save the world.

Let's say that again. My kids are going to save the world.

My kids are going to save the world.

And if you're a mom with kids who aren't grown yet, yours are too.

Your kids are going to save the world.

But they can't do it if we don't teach them how. And today seems like a good day to start.

But I'm still going to let them play video games. They're just kids, after all.

Getting things done

In a recent post I linked to a site that could, quite possibly, create the greatest timesuck ever in my life.

My name is Kaleigh, and I'm addicted to making lists.

The odd bit of double-helix that causes my daughter to obsess about office supplies almost certainly comes from me, as I can spend hours (hours!) poring over planner refills. I have about five calendars that serve different purposes, as well as color-coded files.

At work, my love of organization serves me well, and intimidates the hell out of student interns. They see how I organize the financial files and tremble. Occasionally I'll catch a gleam in a student's eye and sense that I'm with a kindred spirit. A person who separates the big paper clips from the small ones. A person who prefers a specific type of pen (me? I like gel pens best, medium point, black ink).

But the lists are my favorite.

They serve a practical function most of the time. When I'm really slammed at work, I've found that I'm 100% more effective if I stop for a few minutes, list the tasks that must be accomplished and their deadlines, and write a prioritized list. Sometimes the list is just for the day, and sometimes it's a week or more. And since I write down every single thing that needs to be done (even the stuff that doesn't bear mentioning, the daily routine things), the list is long. But including items that I'm going to do, period, gives me the opportunity to cross something off the list, which provides reinforcement, giving me a sense of accomplishment.

When we were about to put our old house on the market, I was taking a large dose of prednisone that kept me awake most of the night. Since I was also very fidgety, reading didn't help much, and I didn't allow myself to watch television all night. Instead, I made lists. Lists of things we needed to do to get the house ready to sell. Lists of things to pack. Lists of things for the new house. Lists of all the things I hated about prednisone. And, in my sleepless state, I was able to cross things off those lists.

I won't even describe some of the spreadsheets I made on excel at that time. It's scary.

But with various projects going on at the house, I found myself needing a way to wrap my head around it. And started making a list. The beauty of making that list on the computer, however, is that tasks can be moved around, reprioritized, refined, without getting a new sheet of paper.

This week's list is pretty easy. I think I'll get something checked off after work today. Because I can.

Welcome to 2007

My kids and husband all got MP3 players/IPODs for Christmas. They were the perfect gifts for all of them, but on the long drive home from Michigan, I realized something. I felt a little bit jealous of all of them.

There they sat, listening to whatever they wanted, since all their favorite tunes were loaded into these tiny bits of electronics. So tiny and cool. And I felt left out.

No more! Mother's Day + my birthday occurring on the same day = great loot! We found time during the busy, busy day that was Sunday for me to open gifts. In the church parking lot, in the shade of the minivan's hatchback. Seriously.

And I got a really cool MP3 player which, most importantly, is pink.

I didn't consider that my sweet, sweet husband would make me learn how to use it myself.

See, I used to be very computer-savvy. And good with electronics. I set up the VCR, the TV, the satellite box, all that stuff. And I did it well. I was a very competent computer user and had no trouble setting up peripheral equipment and installing software.

But I didn't quite keep up. Which is why I use Blogger instead of designing my own site. And it's why I haven't even touched our new DVD player and still don't know what channel on the satellite is the weather channel. I got a bit of technology overload and stopped caring how it worked. Fortunately, Craig proved himself completely capable of doing all those things (and knowing exactly which channel is the weather channel, bless him!).

And when I asked for an MP3 player, I honestly expected that he would load it up with music for me. Because he's good at that stuff. Plus, he knows what I like better than I do.

Imagine my surprise at the gleam in his eye when he told me that I was going to have to sort all that out.

So I installed the software on the laptop on Sunday night and charged up my new pink thingie. And last night I started ripping CDs onto it. I've got 262 songs now, but I haven't created any playlists or anything like that, because there are more CDs to go. His music is mostly stored on the computer upstairs. I asked him last night if he would please occasionally put "cool" songs on my MP3 player since he knows better than I do.

But he was helping me pick out CDs last night, and I noticed that he editorialized a little bit. Because he put Barry Manilow in the stack, hidden between the Cure and Nine Inch Nails. I think he's trying to tell me something about what a dork I am.

36

My birthday is this weekend, but the weekend is so very busy that I'm quite sure I won't post anything, so I thought I'd celebrate early, at least here.

In honor of my 36 years on this planet, here are three dozen things that I love. If you feel the need to buy me a present, or make me something, this would be a great place to get ideas. But if you don't feel that need, that's okay. Just leave comments about how pretty I am. Or something.

1. Fresh baked bread
2. Petunias
3. My pink cell phone
4. Tiaras
5. Kittens
6. The way my dining room and kitchen look when they're clean
7. Country fried steak
8. Coffee
9. Beer
10. Jasmine tea
11. Châteauneuf-du-Pape wine
12. My pillowcases made of this fabric
13. These shoes
14. This makeup
15. This shirt
16. This piece of furniture
17. Books by Anthony Bourdain
18. Books by Poppy Z. Brite
19. The food at Bouchon in Las Vegas
20. Pretty cookbooks
21. The cute backpack my mom gave me for my birthday (thanks, Mom!)
22. My Roomba (but it really needs a friend)
23. The quilts my grandmother made for me
24. The quilts that I made myself
25. Frank Kozik posters
26. Wacky 1950's and 1960's kitsch
27. Yoga pants
28. Flip flops
29. Pajamas
30. Shonen Knife's music
31. Three 6 Mafia (my husband thinks I'm such a dork for that one)
32. My dog, Biscuit
33. My other dog, Gravy
34. My husband
35. My daughter
36. My son

See, that wasn't so hard. Now we have proof that my inner 5-year-old is definitely alive and well (kittens, tiaras?!), but so is my inner gangsta'. Sweet.

And a shout out to my mom, who was so tired of being pregnant thirty-six years ago today. Sorry I didn't manage my escape before Mother's Day. That would have been a nice gift. But watch this space on Mother's Day (probably after dinner). I'm hoping to post the BEST POST EVER!

Alone

So Craig is taking the kids and leaving me.

(Insert dramatic music.)

Until tomorrow.

Susie's best friend moved to Nashville last year, and it's her birthday, so off they go to celebrate. With ice skating and sleepovers and ice cream and puppies. Tweens. So cute and giggly.

Delightfully enough, this best friend has a younger brother the exact same age as Alex. This brother thinks Alex is the most awesome kid in the whole world. When they still lived in Memphis, after a sleepover he tried to keep Alex from leaving, asking, "Can we keep him? Please?" So Alex will be entertained and adored, too.

Craig, on the other hand, will enjoy a night alone in a semi-respectable motel, with Ipod, computer, and DVD's. And liquor.

And as luck would have it, I've already got plans (plans that were made ages ago and ETCHED IN STONE which is why I'm not going to Nashville). Plans that involve girls and night and in (though "out" for me because it's not in my house) and makeup and beverages and food! Maybe we'll even braid each other's hair!

With the vacancies in my house until sometime Saturday afternoon, I have very noble plans to clean and do laundry and sew patches onto Susie's girl scout sash and even make a skirt like this and even make a weekly meal plan and grocery shop. But let's get real. What will I really do? Have you seen my TIVO? No? There's a bunch of this and this and this and I bet I won't even get dressed until well after noon with all that temptation. I do need to stop by the jewelry store to pick up my sweetie's finally-repaired wedding ring and my Christmas necklace with the new chain.

So please forgive me if I don't blog this weekend. Climbing the stairs to the PC may not fit into my plans even a little bit.

****Roomba update: I finally got brave and let the Roomba upstairs. The manual assures the reader that Roomba has infrared sensors that won't allow it to tumble down the stairs. My upstairs hall carpet looks great, and Roomba did not fall down the stairs even once. I love this little thing. I want to spoon with it. And give it an outfit.

MIA

Sorry for the vacancy yesterday. It was a holiday and I was otherwise occupied on the computer. Plus, it was raining and cold and I couldn't think of anything to write.

Can I just say that scanning one's old photos into one's computer is tedious at best? I'm just going to count myself lucky to have a laptop so I could watch television whilst scanning.

"Why," you may ask, "did you embark on such a time-consuming and boring endeavor?"

Because. I hate hate hate hate hate putting photos into albums. They take up too much space and aren't really fun to look at and now, thanks to the power of the intarweb, I've found a new obsession.

The photobook.

I've made two so far and I don't see any signs that I'm stopping anytime soon.

Case in point: our wedding pictures. We've been married, um, almost fourteen years. And in those almost fourteen years, I've done exactly NOTHING to make our wedding album any different than it was when the photographer gave it to us. I've not reprinted any of the pictures. (Wait, I did put one picture into a frame...so I must've put one of the "second string" pictures into the album.) The album is boring. So yesterday, after scanning all those pictures, and a few others, I made this. So if you're just dying to see what I looked like as a blonde, and about 30 pounds lighter, and how The Husband looked with hair, you can see it. (But if you print one for yourself and I don't know you, that's just creepy.)

I expect that I will have more scanning to do since I've decided to make a book to commemorate Susie's first ten years (yes, she's almost ten. I know. Ouch.). And my goodness, she was well-documented for the first four or so years. Then I became a slacker and took less pictures. So if you have any good pictures of Susie from the last five years, please share them with me. Preferably electronically. Because I really don't want to scan any more than I have to.

In other news, American Idol is on tonight. I'm particularly excited because I know someone who auditioned and heard the magic words, "Welcome to Hollywood!" Woot! I'm already behind on my TV viewing since I missed the second two hours of the 24 premier last night. And I've got a meeting tonight and tomorrow, so that means I'll have SIX hours of television on TIVO.

Okay, nothing else to say. But look for a forthcoming post on evidence, in my very own yard, of global warming.

Television and other electronica

Unrelated to anything else, so it gets its own paragraph: my Roomba, formerly not working, is back in the land of the living. Hooray for iRobot customer support, who accurately diagnosed what was wrong with very little helpful information provided by me, and sent the new part in record time. I had to empty the bin three times yesterday as Roomba scooted around the house, picking up pet hair from the nether regions of the house (under the couch, under the bed, under the china cabinet). Our poor deaf dog. He was enjoying the break.

After the Girl Scouts meeting last night, the kids headed upstairs for a little TV and then sleep. And the adults sat downstairs watching TV, which is finally back from its holiday hiatus. Friday Night Lights got away from me a little when I was busy with rehearsals two and three evenings a week, but I was able to figure out what I missed and thoroughly enjoy last night's episode. What a great show.

Top Chef is not quite as fun this season as last season. Marcel is not nearly as awful as Steven was. But the food last night was really great-looking, and there was enough bad behavior to make the episode interesting, although hardly worth the long wait from the previous episode to this one.

OHMYGOSH...did you hear? I just heard. Oh no. I think I'll be needing some chocolate after all.